Picking a Monitor for Multi-Purpose Video Editing & Color Correction — sRGB, DCI-P3, REC 709
I will start off by saying I am a jack of all trades when it comes to video. I’m a video editor, producer, colorist, videographer (DP), gaffer, grip, you name it. I do not consider myself at the Hollywood level of expertise in any of those skills, but I do apply all of them weekly and effectively on commercial shoots for local businesses.
Why do I share this? Picking a monitor for video editing is dependent on your experience, planned use, and level of professional work you are doing. The advice in this article applies to most people delivering online videos, but not to professional colorists doing correction work for cinema or TV broadcast. Monitors used for cinema and TV broadcast will set you back at least a few thousand dollars and require additional hardware to be installed in your computer like a Blackmagic Decklink for a clean SDI signal direct to your expensive monitor. Not sure what that last sentence was? Good, you are in the right place and this article is for you.
I will first outline the primary differences between professional-level monitors vs consumer, my thought process for finding a monitor for a jack of all trades person like myself, and my high-level recommendations on what to look for.
Professional Colorist Standards & Monitors
The average professional colorist is editing for two intended distribution channels. One channel being any form of broadcast over cable, satellite, or antenna. This could also include tv shows distributed online. The second channel is distribution in theaters. The distinction is important because each of the two channels have different color gamut standards.
A color gamut is the range of colors that are visible or displayable. Cinema uses DCI-P3 and broadcast uses Rec. 709. DCI-P3 can display a much wider range of colors while Rec. 709 is an older standard that is more narrow but tried and tested for use across many TVs and monitors.
The diagram above effectively shows how many more colors DCI-P3 can show compared to Rec. 709. Rec. 2020 can show even more, but we won’t discuss it here. DCI-P3 has the ability to show more shades of green and some additional red/yellow shades when compared to Rec. 709.
A professional colorist will buy a monitor that is specifically designed for the color space they are working in. If all their work is broadcast, they will buy a monitor specifically designed to 100% match the Rec.709 color space with high accuracy. If they work in cinema, instead of buying a monitor, they will buy a DCI-P3 projector to further mimic how the video will be consumed and at the correct color gamut.
These monitors come designed for a specific color space, with production level connections, and a heftier price tag.
Consumer Monitor Standards
Consumer monitors introduce an additional standard called sRGB. sRGB has the same color space as Rec. 709, but uses a different gamma. Both sRGB and Rec. 709 have a non-linear curve for displaying luminance values for a specific color. This may sound confusing at first, but the human eye is non-linear and can detect more shades of a dark color than more shades of bright white. A gamma function is how color spaces encode and decode color information in a non-linear fashion to make the best use of what we can see.
For this reason, color spaces were designed to match how people perceive color, but also to match technology at the time. sRGB was developed in 1996 for computers and the internet during a time when older displays also had a limit on the type of colors they could display. The non-linear curve is therefore similar, but different than Rec. 709 and designed for computers. Regardless of the history, it has become the standard for computer, web, mobile, and some printing applications (Photography typically uses AdobeRGB and many printing processes use CMYK).
How Do All These Standards Work Together?
In short, multiple standards have created a mess that don’t always work well together. There are at least 7 standards that are commonly used, but many more.
Displaying Rec. 709 on a DCI-P3 display can make the image look overly saturated. Displaying Rec. 709 on an sRGB display can make the footage look slightly washed out.
Additionally, companies like Apple are now releasing mobile phones and computers with DCI-P3 displays which adds uncertainty to the future of sRGB for computers and what “standard” is really a standard anymore.
Scratching Your Head? Confused About What You Should Use?
You are not alone. The basic rule of thumb is to edit in the color space you expect to deliver. For example, if you are delivering content for broadcast you would edit in Rec. 709 and calibrate your monitor to the Rec. 709 standard. Same with cinema, you would edit in DCI-P3 with a DCI-P3 display.
When color correcting, you can only control your editing environment and the best way to do that is to pick a color standard and ensure your monitor is accurate to that standard. You can’t control the color accuracy of someone's TV or computer.
Where it gets a little less clear is if you are delivering content for the internet on computers and mobile devices. Some devices now have DCI-P3 displays, most have sRGB, but you could also rely on broadcast Rec. 709 as a long time tested standard. If you want to play it safe, I recommend editing and calibrating to Rec. 709. sRGB is the same color space just with a different gamma curve. Consumers also typically have the brightness and contrast of their screens maxed out so any risks of an image looking slightly washed out are usually unfounded.
Additionally, you can buy a wide gamut monitor that is capable of displaying all of the color spaces discussed here.
Buy a Monitor with 99–100% sRGB with Wide Gamut Capabilities
This is where my advice might deviate from a professional colorist. As I previously mentioned, a professional colorist would have a specific display that’s designed perfectly for their color space. If you are like me, most of your clients are displaying their videos on their website or in Facebook ads that get shown on mobile devices. Given the unpredictability of what device a consumer might be on, the best monitor to buy is one that helps you simulate a few different color standards, but maybe isn’t the most accurate monitor money can buy because it isn’t purpose-built for one standard.
At a minimum, you need to buy a monitor that can hit 99–100% of the sRGB color space. Some cheaper monitors can only display 92% or 95% which means you won’t be seeing all the colors correctly and some shades will be missing. If you are delivering content online, you need to make sure your display is showing as much of the sRGB color space as possible so that you have the best chance of color correcting content to look great on many displays.
However, you can spend a bit more and purchase a monitor that can display more than just sRGB. For video, you can find displays that show anywhere from 80–100% of the DCI-P3 color space. The DCI-P3 color space is bigger than sRGB which means you can calibrate it for both depending on your project.
Benefits of a Wide Gamut Monitor
For the type of content I deliver, a wide gamut display lets me primarily edit in Rec. 709, but also test how my finished video will appear on an sRGB and DCI-P3 display.
Have you ever exported a video and then viewed it on your phone only to be surprised at how different the image looks? That was a problem I was consistently having. As I mentioned above, you can only control what you can control, but I still wanted to get an idea of how bad or good my finished videos might look on a different color space display. If something looks way off, I might have room to adjust some contrast or exposure in a clip.
With DCI-P3 displays now being included in mobile devices, the future standards may also change in the not too distant future. Investing in a wider gamut display also ensures you are future-proofed for a change in internet standards if one comes.
Summary — For Web, Edit in Rec. 709 and Test Across sRGB and DCI-P3 Using a Wide Gamut Monitor
Again, you can only control what’s in your editing environment. That means you need to maintain color management of the standard you are using, why you are using it, and ensuring your monitor is calibrated for that color space.
For web content, edit in Rec. 709 (which is the default timeline in Adobe Premiere Pro), color correct in Rec. 709, and review on a Rec. 709 monitor. When your project is done, adjust your monitors calibration to DCI-P3 and sRGB to review the potential impact to your edit. I also recommend continuing to check your video across common devices like an iPhone or iPad.
Monitor Color Calibration on a Budget
Check out my follow-up to this article that covers how to calibrate your monitor cheaply: Here
A Note on Calibration…Do it
No matter what display you buy, you need to calibrate it with a calibration tool like the X-Rite ColorMunki (Click Here). Factory calibration is not accurate enough and it does not account for ambient light in your workspace. A calibration tool also helps you recalibrate your display between different colorspaces.
Display Recommendations
These recommendations are based on my own personal budget and research to stay below $1,000. New products are constantly coming out, but these are just a few options. I ended up decreasing my budget so the one I purchased is what I felt to be the most affordable with a decently wide color gamut.
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Low Cost:
- What I Bought — $350 Samsung U28UR55 (4k — 90% DCI-P3 Coverage & 99% sRGB) which is only available at Best Buy and Micro Center.
- A similar option is the $375 — 27" Dell U2719D with 100% sRGB and 80% DCI-P3 coverage: Here
- LG 32UN650-W 32 Inch with 100% sRGB and 95% DCI-P3 at ~$496: Here
Mid-High Cost:
- Dell Ultrasharp 27" 4k (100% AdobeRGB, 100% sRGB, 100% Rec. 709, 97.7% DCI-P3 and 76.9% Rec. 2020) : Click Here
- Viewsonic VP2785 (4k 99% Adobe RGB ,96% DCI-P3, 100% Rec. 709): Click Here
- BenQ SW270C: Here
Visual Captive is a Minneapolis video production company. We specialize in serving mid-size businesses looking for more growth through visual storytelling. Our core services span pre-production to post-production.
Check out our website: www.visualcaptive.com
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